More Kenya News...

Happy Belated New Year. I should have said that yesterday in my email/blog but it totally slipped my mind. I’m sorry.

Briefly, our new year’s eve consisted of us praying for our friends around Kenya and our families back home. We then watched some movies and then as the time neared midnight, we prepared to shout out “HAPPY NEW YEAR!” It hit 12:00 am, we shouted but a minute later we felt that we could’ve been a little more excited about it, so we counted down from 10 to 1 again and at 12:02 am, shouted “HAPPY NEW YEAR!” again. Then from that time on every hour until 3:00 am, we shouted “HAPPY NEW YEAR!” It was midnight somewhere in the world at that time, why not share in their celebration? At the 2:00 am celebration moment, Aly got a little excited with kicking her legs up in the air and ended up kicking Jared in the face. Jared went down, clutching his nose. It happened in slow motion, in front of Amanda and me. And rather then checking to see if Jared was okay, I fell on to the floor in a fit full of uncontrollable giggles. And then because of my giggles, Aly got in to a fit full of giggles too. It was a wonderful way to relieve some of the hurt, sadness and stress we were all feeling – much to Jared and his nose’s expense. Thanks Jared for being a good sport!!!

Well, it’s Wednesday morning here in Kenya. We’re in town right now because our internet at home is still not working. Hopefully later today it will be fixed.

Today is a normal day in town. All the banks, post offices, supermarkets, etc. are open. There is still a lack of food though as the transportation has been down for the past 6 days since the elections happened so no supplies have been around. However, the public transportation is working today; which is definitely a good thing. It’s a sign that things have calmed down a bit.

The local news is back up on the radio. I know that some of you may have heard about a church burning down in Eldoret with Kikuyu inside and it killing about 30-40 people. That information is true; however, we are being told the number of deaths is more in the range of 150 people.

What we have been told here, is that the opposition has requested a rally tomorrow (Thursday) and the government denied the request. I have been told that the opposition will be doing the rally anyway. So, we don’t really know what tomorrow will bring.

There is a peace among us right now. All of our friends who were in tough situations are currently safe. Our friend with his wife and child in Eldoret were able to get out of their home. The police in Eldoret gave these families 3 hours to escape their homes. The police surrounded the streets of Eldoret and for those three hours, the Kikuyu people were able to move. Our friends are in a safe location now.

With our friends who have the 25 children, Daniel was able to wire them some money (through the cell phone) so they now have money to purchase food for them and the children today.

Here in our town, our Kikuyu friends have been outside of their homes (yesterday and today) and are feeling safe at the moment. They even hung out with other tribes the other night for a football game, laughing and joking and having a great time. It’s a joy to see them come together, stay together when others around them can’t do that.

My update today is short and maybe even a bit sweet….things are calm and normal as of right now. We just ask for your continued prayers for tomorrow’s rally and the possible repercussions of this rally. We pray that the rally brings peace rather than more violence.

I’m hoping that all of this will be resolved soon. As of right now, I’m still planning on the visit to Canada at the end of January (I know Donnalea is working on it – thanks Donnalea!) provided that all is safe here in Kenya. I will not travel if it’s not safe on the roads or if I’m truly needed here. I will definitely keep you all posted as to my travel arrangements. Hopefully we’ll have them done in the next week.

Thank you everyone for your continued prayers, support and emails. We APPRECIATE them, more than you know and we know that God is listening. We can feel the comfort and peace over us individually, as a group and with the people here. We just ask you keep them up over the next few days.

I love you all!

Meredith

xoxoxo